Buffett rule and taxing the rich will not balance the budget

April 10, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to a vote next week in the Senate to implement the so-called Buffett rule, raising taxes on the wealthy:

“The budget cannot be balanced by raising taxes on the so-called wealthy, who happen to be the nation’s job creators. It won’t even come close. A recent Joint Committee on Taxation estimate found that raising the capital gains and income taxes to 30 percent for those who make over $1 million — the so-called Buffett rule — will raise just $3 billion the first year and just $47 billion over the next 10 years.

That compares with more than $10 trillion in new debt the government will take on over the next decade, when the national debt will rise to more than $26 trillion. Of the Buffett rule, Obama has said that ‘basic principle of fairness, if applied to our tax code, could raise enough money that not only do we pay for our jobs bill, but we also stabilize our debt and deficits for the next decade. And as I said when I made the announcement, this is not politics; this is math.’

“Well, the woefully inadequate revenues generated from his tax-the-rich scheme show that we cannot tax our way out of this debt crisis. Spending must be cut substantially to set us on a path to balance the budget. The problem is not that we tax too little; it’s that we spend too much. Yet, under Obama’s fiscal plan, the budget will never be balanced, and the debt will continue growing exponentially, far outpacing economic growth.

“If this taxing the hell out of job creators was the path to prosperity, Europe would be a paradise. Instead it’s a dystopian nightmare, and serves as a warning for American politicians who believe that our spending, borrowing and printing addiction can be ignored.

“We are quickly approaching a funding crisis, and we will not be able to fill the gap with gargantuan tax hikes. All that will do is make it harder for job creators to get us out of this mess at a time when already 27 million people cannot find full-time work.”

Interview Availability:Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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